Sri Krishna Kathamrita

तवकथामृतं तप्तजीवनम्
tava kathāmṛtaṁ tapta-jīvanam
Bindu
Fortnightly email mini-magazine from Gopal Jiu Publications

Issue No. 477 Śrī Śayana Ekādaśī 1 July 2020 Circulation 9,781

• An Epidemic Condition
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
• Proper Krishna Kirtana
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada
• Nāma-tattva: Dancing and Clapping Hands in Kirtana
Highlights

Srila Nayananda Thakur

• Swanlike Negotiators
Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode
• Beginning the Feast
Hari Parshad Das
• Prayer to the Vaishnavas
• The Glories of Sanatan Goswami
The poet Manohar

rāma rāghava, rāma rāghava, rāma rāghava, rakṣa mām!

An Epidemic Condition
His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
We have to be very careful. The age is very bad, the
Kali-yuga. You are experiencing. We have to simply
take shelter of Krishna and always cry:
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, he!
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, he!
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, rakṣa mām!
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, pāhi mām!
kṛṣṇa keśava, kṛṣṇa keśava, kṛṣṇa keśava, pāhi mām!
Like that, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught us. The
time is very dangerous. In this dangerous time... Just
like in an epidemic condition where everyone is being
contaminated and dying, still, the doctors appointed by
the government have to go into the epidemic area and try
to treat the person and save them. Our duty is like that.
The whole atmosphere is epidemic, whole atmosphere,
this Kali-yuga. And still, by the superior orders we have to
preach this Krishna consciousness movement.
Therefore, our only shelter is Krishna — kṛṣṇa,
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, rakṣa mām. Very
dangerous position. The foolish people, they are
thinking that, “We are very happy and we are very
safe.” But nobody is safe. Nobody is safe. So we have
to deal with persons very carefully, and at the same
time we have to push our missionary activities.
— Lecture in Calcutta. 6 January 1971.
Proper Krishna Kirtana
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada
The meaning the first verse of the Śikṣāṣṭaka:
ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ
śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam

next column  
Issue Four Hundred Seventy Seven, Page — 2
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ
sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam
The phrase ceto-darpana-mārjana indicates the
removal of unauthorized philosophical speculation,
the cheating propensity, previous anarthas, and
all inauspiciousness from the heart. By properly
performing kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, all material desires and
philosophical misunderstandings are vanquished. By
properly performing kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, the blazing forest
fire of attachment to karma and jñāna are extinguished.
By properly performing kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, the lotus of all
auspiciousness blossoms in the heart and is as soothing
as the cooling rays of the moon. Proper kṛṣṇa-kīrtana
is the beloved husband of the wife of transcendental
knowledge. For those who chant, it enhances the
ocean of bliss at every step, and it bestows on them the
ability to relish transcendental nectar. It gives love of
God and bestows on the soul the freedom to engage
in transcendental loving service in the spiritual sky.
The kṛṣṇa-kīrtana famine in this godless world:
In this godless world, no customers are looking
for pure kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. As long as people think
themselves nondifferent from the body, they cannot
understand the need for kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtana. Instead,
they praise material desires, jñāna, and fruitive
activities. What to speak of pure kṛṣṇa-kīrtana in this
godless world, no one even performs a partial form of
kīrtana. Kīrtana about things not related to Krishna is
māyā’s kīrtana, and people are passing it off as kṛṣṇa-
kīrtana. As a result, both chanters and audience are
cheated. There is no remedy for the material disease
other than chanting Krishna’s holy name:
harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
The description of the different nāmāparādhas
committed in the godless world:
There is no alternative to chanting the holy
name of Hari. At present there is a famine in terms
of harināma. Nowadays, people are trying to use
harināma to fill their bellies, accumulate fame and
women, cure diseases, and draw prosperity to their
country or society. But harināma is not a tool to help
us increase our material pleasure or attain liberation.
These days, materialistic people are eager to offend
the holy name. After the performance of aṣṭa-prahara
kīrtana (twenty-four-hour kīrtana), if they then discuss
how to eat and live nicely, or quarrel, or discuss sense
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श्रीकृष्णकथामृत बिन् दु
gratification, then such a kīrtana cannot be called
aṣṭa-prahara kīrtana. Only constant chanting of the
holy name of Hari can be called aṣṭa-prahara kīrtana.
Offensive chanting is never aṣṭa-prahara kīrtana.
The reaction to nāmāparādha is material enjoyment.
During the perverted form of aṣṭa-prahara kīrtana, the
chanters are not chanting Lord Hari’s transcendental
name; rather, they are chanting māyā’s name. Those
who chant the Lord’s pure name are guaranteed
to awaken their love for Krishna. In recent times,
people cheat by advertising māyā’s saṅkīrtana as if it
were kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtana. It is extremely necessary to
save neophyte devotees or people with shaky faith
from this cheating business.
— Vakṛtāvalī, from a lecture on 4 May 1925. At the Sri Gaudiya Math,
Ultadanga, Calcutta.
Nāma-tattva
Dancing and Clapping
Hands in Kirtana
Srila Nayanananda Thakur’s
Śrī Kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-kadamba 5.24
Nayanananda Thakur was the nephew and disciple
of Gadadhar Pandit. Gadadhar Pandit’s younger
brother, Baninath Mishra, had two sons named
Nayanananda and Hridayananda. Śrī Kṛṣṇa-bhakti-
rasa-kadamba was written in 1630 A.D.
agre tāṇḍava kṛṣṇera kara ye nartana
kakṣā bādya karatāli nāma saṅkīrtana
bhakti bhāve nṛtya kare hṛṣṭa ātma haiṅā
śarīrera pātaka paṅka jāya palāiṅā
For one who with devotion happily dances and
claps their hands in saṅkīrtana before Krishna, all
sinful reactions from their body are immediately
vanquished.
— Sri Nayananda Thakur. Śrī Śrī Preyo-bhakti-rasārṇava, Śrī Śrī
Kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-kadambha, o Śrī Śrī Śyāmacandrodaya. Edited
and published by Haridas Das. Haribol Kutir. Nabadwip, West
Bengal. 463 Gaurabda. Bengali.
 Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu Issue Four Hundred Seventy Seven, Page — 3
Swanlike Negotiators
Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode
The swanlike vaiṣṇavas are present in the battlefield
as negotiators. They do not hate or reject various sinful
persons. Swanlike vaiṣṇavas are always engaged in
purifying the hearts of sinful persons by confidential

Unknown artist
instructions, public lectures, friendly advice, chastising,
setting example, and sometimes punishing sinners.
— Kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā. Chapter 10, text 14. English translation by
Bhumipati Das. Vrajaraj Press. Edited and published by Pundarik
Vidyanidhi Das. Vrindavan. 1998.
The gopīs and mother Yasoda with Krishna after the death of Putana

Krishna is indeed all-destroying kāla (time). Like a

Brahmin about to begin a feast of consuming thou-
sands of demons, he first performed ācamana six
times by sipping Putana’s milk along with her five
bodily airs.

According to Āyurveda, there are five airs in the

body — prāṇa, apāna, udāna, vayāna and samāna. These
airs, and especially prāṇa, sustain the soul within the
Unknown artist

body. Krishna sucked Putana’s milk along with these

five airs, totaling six items. The poet says that Krishna
thus performed ācamana by sipping in these six items,
thereby indicating that he was about to begin the
Beginning the Feast grand feast of consuming thousands of demons.
— Based on Bhāgavatam-vyañjanam (Chapter 2, Verse 25) from the
edition published by Govind Jaikrishna Kale. Nagpur. 1965 A.D.
Hari Parshad Das
A popular Sanskrit proverb says, brāhmaṇo bhojana-
priyaḥ — “Brahmins love feasts.” What then to speak
of Krishna, who is brahmaṇya-deva (the worshipable Ślokāmṛta
lord of the Brahmins)? He certainly loves feasts too.
The Bhagavad-gītā (18.42) describes śaucam, purity, as
Prayer to the Vaishnavas
one of the important qualities of a Brahmin. One of the Srila Narahari Sarkar’s
ways that a Brahmin ensures purity is by performing Śrī Kṛṣṇa-bhajanāmṛta text 29
ācamana, ritual sipping of water at various times in the
sva-duḥkhaḥ para-duḥkāni nāśayanti mahā-janāḥ
day. Ācamana consists of sipping water thrice and then
parārtha eva sādhūnāṁ vibhūtir jīvanaṁ sukham
thrice again to ensure that it has been done properly.
In total, water is sipped six times during ācamana. The great souls, taking others suffering as their
The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam describes that Putana was own, destroy other’s sufferings. Concern for others is
the first among demons to attack and try to kill the wealth of the devotees and the happiness of life.
Krishna. The devotee poet Dhundhiraja Shastri (the — English translation by Bhanu Swami. Sri Vaikuntha
Enterprises. Chennai, India.
parama-guru of Sri Harisuri) has written the following
realization in this regard:
paraḥ-sahasrāsura-vaṁśya-bhojī
stanyena tasyāḥ kila kṛṣṇa-kālaḥ
prāṇāhutīnāṁ saha-pañcakena
manye ‘mṛtopastaraṇaṁ cakāra

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Issue Four Hundred Seventy Seven, Page — 4 श्रीकृष्णकथामृत बिन् दु
The Glories of Sanatan Goswami
The Poet Manohar
It is not clear who the author of this song is. There are
a number of poets in Gaudiya history named Manohara.
Śri-rāga
jaya jaya pahu śrīla sanātana nāma
sakāla bhūvana māchā yachu-guna grāma
All glories, all glories to Srila Sanatan Goswami!
He is a mine of good qualities for the whole world.
bhejala sakala sukha sampadapāra
śrī caitanya carana bugala karu sāra
He renounced all comforts of life and accepted the
feet of Sri Chaitanya as the essence.
śrī vṛindāvana bhūme kari bāsa

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lupata tīrtha saba karala prakāśa
He resided in the land of Vrindavan where he
revealed all the hidden holy places.
śrī govinda sevā paracāri
Srila Sanatan Goswami offers chapatis to the deity of Madan Mohan
karala bhāgavata artha vicāri

He preached the service of Sri Govinda and Doing the worship of the divine couple and their
discerned the meaning of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. pastimes, qualities, and names, he wrote many books.
yugala bhajana līlā-guna nāma satata gaura preme gara gara deha
karala vithāra grantha anupāma bhrama-i vṛndāvane nā pāoi theha
Absorbed in ecstatic love for Gaura, he constantly

wandered about in Vrindavan.
Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu vipula pulaka bhara nayana nīra
rāi kānu bali paḍa-i athira
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Manohar simply thinks of that Goswami by whose
Gopal Jiu Publications is a section of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness, Founder-Acharya: His mercy one can attain Vrindavan.
Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. [Note: The author makes a play on words. Mana
means “mind”, while hara means “to steal”. In effect
Quotations from the books, letters, and lectures of His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ©Bhaktivedanta Book he is saying, “Sanatan Goswami steals the mind
Trust. All other materials, unless specified, © ISKCON Gopal Jiu (manohara) of this Manohar.”]
Publications. All rights reserved. Blanket permission is given
— Translated from Śrī Śrī Parikara-gaṇera Mahimā Sūcaka. Compiled
to redistribute Bindu in electronic or print form provided no
by Kishori Das Babaji. Vaishnava Research Institute. Halisahar, West
changes are made to the contents.
Bengal. 2005. pp. 39-40. Bengali.